# Technological distraction destroys complexity of thought **URL:** \ **Category:** Lounge\ **Created:** [November 12, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/technological-distraction-destroys-complexity-of-thought/53293 "2011-11-12T21:31:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PheroQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@PheroQuirk](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/PheroQuirk)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/technological-distraction-destroys-complexity-of-thought/53293/1 "2011-11-12T21:31:56Z")
[Bruce Charlton’s Miscellany: Complexity of thought](http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2011/11/complexity-of-thought.html) > [@](#): > > **Complexity of thought** > > - > > When I was working in the area of Niiklas Luhmann’s systems theory+, I devised a handy way of conceptualizing the complexity of a system - which was as the ratio of internal communications _within_ a system, divided by the amount of communication _between_ a system and its environment. > > This can be applied to _thinking_: > > the complexity of _cognition_ would then be a ratio of an organism’s internal cognitive activity over the amount of communication between the organism and its environment (including other organisms). > > - > > If cognition is measured using time, then this roughly translates to: > > **Time thinking/ Time communicating** > > - > > Time spent thinking is mostly solitary. > > Time spent in communicating includes conversation and other social interactions, the media and news, and also the learning of new information etc (including learning of all types including scholarship, including writing) and the expounding of information (including teaching). > > - > > This means that an increase in time spent in social interaction, in contact with the media _and in_ _learning new stuff_ (time in-putting data)will tend to _simplify_ thought unless the amount of (mostly solitary) thinking time is proportionately increased. > > - > > This explains why the European Middle Ages attained the highest complexity of coherent abstract thought (Thomas Aquinas and the environment in which he operated) - since there were few books, no mass media, ‘monastic’ seclusion - and in general a great deal of time spent thinking relative to the amount of stuff flowing into and out-of the mind. > > - > > This explains why the internet has not led to any advances in genuine understanding, since the millions-fold expansion in the amount of data (plus increased social interaction via electronic media, plus increased volume and usage of the mass media) have led to an equally vast simplification of cognition. > > The average modern human mind is now more like a relay station than a brain - performing just a few quick and simple processes on a truly massive flow-through of data. > > This applies equally, or especially, to intellectuals who are plugged-into oceans of data in a way never before possible. > > When all (_almost_ all) intellectual _output_ is simply a summary of un-assimilated _input_, as we see all around; then we can perceive that intellectual processing has become grossly _simplified_. > > The ‘sound bite’ is simply a literal transcription of the (largest) unit of modern thinking. > > - > > This explains (in general terms) the importance of _sleep_ - when the mind becomes more-or-less cut off from the environments and cognitive processing is almost-wholly internal. > > - > > To improve the complexity of cognitive processing is, however, a simple matter: more time alone and thinking, less time socializing and in-putting. > > - ---
**Author:** ![SteveO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@SteveO](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/SteveO)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/technological-distraction-destroys-complexity-of-thought/53293/2 "2011-12-06T17:54:55Z")
WOW! Great article, like always, but I do believe you might have outdone yourself with this one. I’ve read something similar a while ago, or perhaps it was a TED talk. I meditate about 30 minutes a day, and use my NovaPro about another hour a day too. I find the days that I do take the time to do these things and silence the mind I can think more clearly and have better ideas in general. ---
**Author:** ![TwistedOstrich](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/pheromonetalk.com/twistedostrich/32/627_2.png) [@TwistedOstrich](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/TwistedOstrich)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/technological-distraction-destroys-complexity-of-thought/53293/3 "2011-12-06T23:01:03Z")
Definitely a topic of discussion with my friends, something that I’ve suspected for sometime but had nothing to refer to. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![FARMER\_JON](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6a8cbe/32.png) [@FARMER\_JON](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/FARMER_JON)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/technological-distraction-destroys-complexity-of-thought/53293/4 "2011-12-19T01:19:47Z")
constant learning is key to the sucess in life